Wednesday, 16 December 2015

About two years ago, I purchased a long black velvet dress from a vintage shop for an absolute bargain, and whilst I love it, it has always felt as though something was missing. It was just a bit... plain.

I paired it with big hair and a long statement key necklace, and still felt as though I was missing something. Until I found a belt in a charity shop that was just what I was looking for, after only two years of looking! It was only £2.50. I haven't managed to wearing it with this dress yet but I have paired it nicely with a high-low skirt and leggings.

Yes, that's my daughter there trying to eat a shoe. But I felt like the chain link silver belt had just the right sort of hippie feel to it for the skirt, and it will break up the plain dress nicely. And please ignore my awful hair here!

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

We got our tree up right on time which I was very pleased about because I was worried we just wouldn't be organised enough to do it until right before Christmas and I wouldn't get to maximise the festivities in the house. It's our first Christmas in our own home, so apart from a few choice items that I've had for years most of our decorations are brand new, which is very exciting for me.

Our large tree all squished up in the corner of the living room, it covers the storage box so Reegan can only play with the toys that are currently not in the box until she gets new ones for Christmas. She doesn't seem to mind.

Some cool key ornaments from Ikea, they caught my eye because they look like they are made from bones.

This clock doesn't really match anything else I have but it's a little Steampunky so I couldn't resist.

My old faithful who has been with me for years.

At the moment this is out tree topper because we haven't got any else that Rob deems Pagan enough to replace it. He wants to honor the origins of the holiday.

And finally a candle lantern also from Ikea. It gives off a lovely glow but it was a complete nightmare to assemble! Apart from some food and present shopping experience are almost prepared for the holidays now. Yay!

Thursday, 3 December 2015

So hopefully I can commit myself now to an outfit post each week. I didn't manage to post my face of the day last week because my plans went kind of wrong. It was my little sister's fifth birthday on Friday, so we went up to my mum's house to stay with them that night. We went out for a nice family meal and spent Saturday morning playing with her new toys. For her birthday I gave her a face painting set and thought it would be a great activity for us to do together and would make for a cute FOTD post, so I sat down and let her paint my face ENTIRELY pink.

After a few minutes it started to feel itchy and crusty so I had to wash it off. It turns out that my skin didn't agree with the face painting and I ended up with a splotchy red face for the rest of the day.

So onto my outfit, the main piece of which is a little skater dress that I got from Primark three or four years ago, and I have swung back and forth on liking/disliking it and actually almost threw it out on more than one occasion. I recently just started wearing it again and have fallen back in love with it. I think it definitely had something to do with one or two compliments that I got wearing it.

I wore this outfit (minus the nbc socks) to an appointment with the dressmaker who is making my wedding dress, she is wonderful at her job and I have known her for six years now, so I trust her opinions when it comes to fashion. She complimented me on the outfit and it really boosted how great I feel wearing this dress, and I wear it a lot more than I used to. When you feel comfortable and confident in what you wear it makes such a big difference. I actually love the silhouette so much that I'm planning on using this dress to make a pattern for another one.

I'm also wearing a crushed velvet bolero with bell sleeves, the cuffs featuring laser cut velvet and lace trim, floral patterned fishnet tights and a black belt. I'm not wearing shoes because they are not allowed in the upstairs of the house, especially not on the precious black bedroom carpet! But I was wearing my patent black docs.

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

We have been very fortunate in the past couple of weeks to be able to go on a couple of date nights without our toddler with us. The first was when we went to see a theatre production of Dracula at Arnos Vale (yes, we have been visiting there alot lately, they have a lot of events going on! Although I still haven't taken the official tour...) it was supposed to be a partial outdoor performance, starting at one building to begin with, and travelling to another during the opening scene. The weather, however, had other ideas, there was a big storm that night and the wind was atrocious. It made for the perfect atmosphere though!

Our program

The cemetery cafe was open so I treated myself to a nice cup of hot mulled wine whilst we waited for the production to begin. I was a little nervous about whether or not Rob was going to enjoy it, because if he hadn't of wanted to accompany me I was planning to ask a friend along as it's not really his sort of thing. I was mortified when he told me during the interval that he had fallen asleep and the person behind him had kicked his chair, but he does have difficulty staying awake at the best of times. He can't help it, he just falls asleep ridiculously easily! Excepting that little incident I think he had a good time. I really enjoyed the evening as I haven't been to the theatre for years, not since my mum used to take me when I was still at school. It was a very small cast of eight members, with a couple of actors playing multiple characters and they performed an adaptation written by Scottish playwright Liz Lochhead. There were a couple of deviations from Bram Stoker's original that bothered me a little, such as changed character surnames and the fact that Lucy and Mina were portrayed as sisters in this version. But that's just a fan being finicky.

The final scene was performed outdoors in the end and it was quite wonderful.

Our second date night was last week when we had our appointment to give notice of marriage at the registry office, and since it was in the city centre at six 'o clock we took the opportunity to go out for dinner with friends on a double date afterwards. We went for steaks at a grill house, and it was two for one on cocktails too. Yum!

Ammaretto peach sours! My favourite

Silly selfie!

I had steak with fries and blue cheese sauce, and tiger prawns and calamari with chilli and tomatoes to start. Blue cheese and seafood are probably my favourite foods. Apart from chocolate. Obviously. The double date part ended up being spontaneous because we spotted my friend'stating boyfriend driving infront of us on the way into town, and it turned out that he was picking her up from work so it was perfect timing on all parts!